Essay Sample on Exploring the Balance Between Capitalism & Socialism in The United States

Introduction

The United States, as well as other governments around the world find themselves at crossroads on the principles of governance to adopt. While most governments in the modern world have tried to strike the delicate balance between different policies, the hybrid has been faced by several challenges. For instance, the United States, which has been built on capitalism bears several elements of socialism, though it is not really a socialist country in a Marxist sense. The country also leans towards libertarian principles and protection of rights. The hybrid, however, is plagued by several social and political issues, raising the question of whether a more libertarian or utilitarian system should be adopted. Standing at $18 trillion, the national debt is at an all-time high, the $500 million budget deficit depicts an ailing economy, and the citizens are struggling to survive with homelessness and dependence on food stamps on the rise. Issues have also been raised over the military engagement abroad, the high rates of incarceration, as well as the country's dilapidated infrastructure. These issues will serve as the minor premises in this paper. Libertarianism is a system of governance that is anchored on liberty. It seeks to maximize political freedom as well as autonomy. Often, libertarians are skeptic of state power and authority (Light and Block 40). On the other hand, utilitarian policies focus on the outcome to determine right from wrong. It is strongly anchored on ethics and holds that the most ethical choice is that which leads to the greatest good for the highest number of people. In light of the 21st century problems discussed above, this paper is premised on whether the U.S. should adopt a more libertarian or utilitarian system in the future. For a society as diverse and heterogeneous as the United States, a utilitarian, also popularly known as socialist, system should be adopted. The fact that both the Democrats and Republicans have agreed that the issues facing the country can only be addressed through a libertarian principle is the other major premise.

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Some of the problems mentioned above have resulted from policies that did not consider the good of all the people. The spending of millions of dollars on military engagement in foreign lands while more citizens become homeless and increasingly dependent on welfare is outrightly against utilitarian principles. Moreover, it can be argued that the significant involvement of the government elsewhere while Americans continue facing various social problems such as poor infrastructure is not for the good of the majority of the citizens. Elements of this argument have been seen in President Trump's policies, which have been praised by millions of citizens. His 'America First' policy, seeks to increase the amount of resources used internally for the benefits of the citizens (Abrams 10). In an ideal situation, were all the resources that the country uses elsewhere to be used locally, issues such as homelessness and poverty would be addressed. The economy would turn around, the national debt would go down, Americans would get better wages, and the other social and economic issues burdening the society would be addressed. This would be the culmination of utilitarianism. The system would also address some of the most contentious issues in the country such as affordable healthcare for all. In a utilitarian society, the government would strive to ensure the health of its citizens since it the best thing to do. The contentious issue of immigration would also be addressed in this system, since the government would consider what is best for the citizens before making any decisions. Governments such as Germany and France, which have adopted policies that lean towards utilitarianism have been performing excellently in recent past. Moreover, they have proved that utilitarianism does not necessarily have to lead to violation of the rights of the citizens. Instead, these governments take into account the rights of the citizens and also seek to benefit the majority of the citizens through various interventions.

However, as much as this paper argues that a utilitarian system holds the remedy to the myriad of issues facing the society, it is also not a perfect model. First, it is difficult to determine the choice or decision that will produce the greatest good for all since the society has different needs. Moreover, since predicting the future is difficult, the consequences of a certain action cannot be established with certainty. Besides, it is difficult to account for values like individual rights and justice in utilitarianism. For instance, say that four people are in need of different organs. According to utilitarianism, it would do good to harvest the organs from a healthy person and save more people. However, this would go against the rights of the healthy person. This is one of the strongest arguments that libertarians hold against utilitarianism (Piacquadio 1275).

Though it has been mentioned that both Democrats and Republicans agree that a libertarian system can address the issues facing the country, this section will argue otherwise. The libertarian principle of governance, maintains that the government should not interfere with the citizens' pursuit of commerce, economic enterprises, and personal decisions, but rather limit itself to prosecuting those initiating violence or committing fraud against others (Light and Block 35). The two supportive premises are based on the championing of different kinds of freedom as advanced in libertarianism such as political freedom, the will of association, and even freedom of choice (Zwolinski 82). These are the American attributes that drove people from all around the world into the country in what became known as the American Dream. However, with the different occurrences that have been happening in the country, some of which have been mentioned in this paper, critics have even gone as far as asking whether the American Dream is still alive (Graham). Moreover, it has become clear that freedoms do not always lead to happiness and prosperity. For instance, the rampant gun violence seen in the country can be blamed on the right to own guns. Besides, some countries in the world, such as China where rights and freedoms are suppressed, are doing much better economically than the US. Libertarianism, therefore, is not the solution to the problems the country is facing. The system also contains demerits that can only be countered by the utilitarian principle of governance. A typical case study is presented by Robert Frank, who is an economist at Cornell University. Robert narrates the impact that the move by the Union Cyclists International (UCI) to make helmets mandatory in bicycle racing had on not only the sport but also the participants. The case study proves that regulation by the government is required Lombardi, Miyagishima and Veneziani).

Conclusion

It is clear, therefore, that the country is facing deep social and political issues that require a change of governance to address. While utilitarianism and libertarianism are the most prominent systems that could be chosen, they are both plagued by various limitations. However, utilitarianism holds the best hope for the nation since it has been successfully adopted in other countries such as Germany. By seeking the greatest good for the greatest number of citizens, issues such as homelessness, poverty, lower wages, high rates of incarceration, and poor infrastructure could be addressed. It has also been shown that lack of freedoms is not the core problem in the country. Nations with far much less freedoms are doing better economically. Moreover, as proven in the case study, government regulation is essential. Therefore, the U.S. government needs to lean towards the utilitarianism system to address the multitude of issues facing the country.

Works Cited

Abrams, Elliot. "Trump the traditionalist: a surprisingly standard foreign policy." Foreign Aff. 96 (2017): 10. <https://heinonline.org/hol-cgi-bin/get_pdf.cgi?handle=hein.journals/fora96&section=79>.

Graham, Carol. "Is the American dream really dead?" 20 June 2017. The Gurdian. <https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2017/jun/20/is-the-american-dream-really-dead>.

Light, Christian and Walter E. Block. "Christianity, the Free Market, and Libertarianism." Studia Humana 6.4 (2017): 34-44. <https://www.degruyter.com/downloadpdf/j/sh.2017.6.issue-4/sh-2017-0025/sh-2017-0025.xml>.

Lombardi, Michele, Kaname Miyagishima and Roberto Veneziani. "The contradiction of classical liberalism and libertarianism." LSE Business Review (2017). <http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/79896/1/blogs.lse.ac.uk-The%20contradiction%20of%20classical%20liberalism%20and%20libertarianism.pdf>.

Piacquadio, Paolo Giovanni. "A fairness justification of utilitarianism." Econometrica 85.4 (2017): 1261-1276. <https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.3982/ECTA14151>.

Zwolinski, Matt. "The Libertarian Nonaggression Principle." Social Philosophy and Policy 32.2 (2016): 62-90. <https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/social-philosophy-and-policy/article/libertarian-nonaggression-principle/E8CF5446CB1D9601EFA043F7903F1CB1>.